Stay Outside the Box

I mentioned in my last post that Mom Sparkler and I recently solidified wedding-week accommodations for my close family. And I know what you’re thinking, “Sparkler, didn’t you already block hotel rooms for your guests? What are you doing now? Adding more stuff to your plate???”

Well, the Sparkler fam always seems to be doing things differently. Mom is a bargain shopper at heart, and when it came to finding a place to stay in Chicago for the week, she wasn’t exactly down with booking 4 hotel rooms for my immediate family. So what is a gigantic Sparkler crew to do when they want to stay together (family time!) and not break the bank? Enter the world of alternative vacation-housing!

There are a lot of companies who cater to vacationers looking for a “home away from home” type of experience. It can be really fun (and save you a lot of money) if, say, you’re going to a destination wedding and want to split a place with 2 or 3 other couples. I feel guilty keeping this money-saving secret, so I thought I’d share my top 3 favorite sites to help you book this type of vacation:1. VRBO

The Sparkler family loves VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner). Basically, the site brings together tons of homeowners around the globe who regularly rent out their vacation palaces (or apartments, or cabins, or beach houses).

Want to stay in an authentic Greek apartment, overlooking the Aegean Sea? Search VRBO by region, then country, then city”¦ and, tada! Your dream rental appears! (And yes, they really have a bunch of Greek apartments”¦ and mansions”¦ for rent!).

Mom Sparkler always rents the same townhouse in Chi for big visits. The rental price for the wedding week is significantly lower than the price of 4 hotel rooms for that amount of time. And it sleeps 12-14 people”¦ booyah!

The CouchSurfing experience is by FAR the most adventurous of the three I’ve talked about. They offer (the obvious) couches to crash on, rooms to take over, or even a coffee date in a new city. The best part?

Yep. Totally free. But (of course) use with caution, and make sure you get to know who you’re crashing with.

Sparkler Bro has CouchSurfed everywhere from Morocco to California to Portugal (just to name a few). If you have any questions about it, feel free to contact him”¦ if you can find him. He’s somewhere in Spain at the moment, CouchSurfing his little heart out (as well as STUDYING and doing lots of schoolwork”¦ right? ).

Sparkler bro and his Spanish buddy

So what do you think? Would you ever use one of these sites when traveling to a destination wedding? Any frequent Airbnb or CouchSurfing users out there? What was your experience like?

VRBO and Air bnb sound awesome! I’m not sure I’d be comfortable with Couch Surfing, but that’s a great cheap idea for world travelers! This is going to give me hours of searching new places to stay and travel, thanks S!

I rented a house through Homeaway (I think that’s the same as VRBO) for the days around my wedding and it was a perfect central location for everyone! I stayed there with my best friend and her baby and we were able to have dinner there with everyone the night before the wedding instead of going to a restaurant. It was so nice to be in an organized, clean, calm, and beautiful home. It’s one of my best wedding decisions and everyone loved to gather there.

Can I just add a note of caution about airbnb? The site is cool because airbnb acts like an escrow…holding your money until 24 hours after you’ve seen the place. It gives you some security against showing up to find the home or apartment wasn’t what you were led to believe it would be. Make SURE you arrive on the day scheduled and have airbnb’s contact info handy in case the place isn’t up to standards and you need to call and cancel and get a refund.

I’m staying at an airbnb space in Portugal right now and arrived a day later than planned to find my place pretty dirty and not worth what I paid. That’s my fault and I’ll use airbnb again, but I still want to caution everybody to know the game before you use the service. And make sure you’re using it in a place with plenty of other accommodations nearby in case you do need to cancel.

Couch Surfing is an *amazing* was to save money and meet people! My husband and I travel all over the world – and it’s always our favorite way to meet new people in new countries! We usually do it for a few nights at the beginning of a trip. Love it!

CouchSurfing is AWESOME!!! My boyfriend and I host and surf and have had only great experiences. I suggest any skeptics at least give it a try because you can’t really appreciate how awesome it is until you give it a go.